Countries providing high quality jobs and effective social protection and investing in human capital have proved to be more resilient to the economic crisis. This is one of the main findings of the 2014 Employment and Social Developments in Europe Review, which has looked back to the legacy of the recession.

EU leaders and social partners have agreed this morning on the urgent need to stimulate investment and create more jobs in order to meet the objectives of the Europe 2020 Strategy, the EU's long-term growth and jobs plan.

The European Commission has published today a study on bottleneck occupations, i.e. jobs where employers have had problems in the past to find and hire staff to fill vacancies, and expect the same in the future.

The National Employment agency of Bulgaria hosted this peer review from 10-11 April in Sofia, Bulgaria, which was attended by representatives from the PES in Austria, Belgium (Actiris), Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, France, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia and the United Kingdom.

The European Commission welcomes today's adoption by the EU's Council of Minister of a Quality Framework on Traineeships to enable trainees to acquire high-quality work experience under safe and fair conditions, and to increase their chances of finding a good quality job.